The Blog

Aqua Design Amano (ADA) is, in my opinion, the leader in aquascaping equipment. They are focused on making it easy for a beginner to buy their products and set up a beautiful nature aquarium. To that end, they recently put up a page on Starting from Zero. Going through the steps they depict, I saw a “pro tip” I always … Read More

If aquascapers can be rock stars, Oliver Knott would be one. He’s a professional aquascaper and sports a mohawk. He oozes cool. In conjunction with the Dennerle guys, he gave a demonstration at Interzoo 2012. Please take a look at the tools he uses including the plants in the plastic container. We here, in the US, are so far behind … Read More

“It’s Been a While” refers not only to the fact that, at least I, haven’t seen anything from Jason Baliban in a while, but it also refers to a series of hardscape video’s he just released. If you don’t know Jason, his is an accomplished aquascaper and documents his hobby at his site, Project Aquarium. This is another aquascaping master … Read More

I recently had a rant on the sorry state of aquarium plants in the US. This rant does not apply to the this idyllic version of the local fish store. Nestled in the middle of a quiet street in otherwise bustling San Francisco, sits Aqua Forest Aquarium (AFA). Started by George and Steven Lo, AFA is an importer of Aqua … Read More

I love it when I get to see true masters at work. James Findley and the Green Machine have been carving new ground in creating visually stunning videos that teach the art of aquascaping. In this extremely informative video, James walks us through the creation of a huge aquascape. He entitled it “Reciprocity” because of its diagonally mirroring sides. It … Read More

The state of aquarium plants in most local fish stores (LFS) is shameful! It makes me sick and I want someone, anyone, to put a stop to it! Our hobby will not grow if the quality of plants available to your average Joe hobbyist doesn’t improve hugely. Any recent business graduate will tell you that it’s all about the … Read More

The setup of the Radion tank is coming together. Yesterday I hung the Radion and started to play with it. I was having too much fun with the modes so I grabbed the camera and took a couple of videos. The first one is the psychedelic demo mode that cycles through everything the Radion can do. It is amazing to … Read More

I think ADA really raised the bar with this video series on how Takashi Amano and ADA put together the world’s largest Nature Aquarium for the world’s tallest building, the Tokyo Sky Tree Town. There’s a lot to learn from this 20+ minute video. I’ll be putting the series up as they come out. Enjoy!

So the awesome folks at EcoTech Marine sent me a review model of their Radion to test out in a planted aquarium setting. It’s the perfect excuse to set up a new tank. I happen to have a 24 gallon Cardiff aquarium lying around so I decided to use it for this experiment. You can see it below. I’m going … Read More

About Me

Art Pennom has been involved with the planted aquarium hobby for over 20 years, as a hobbyist and as a merchant. He writes and curates ScapeFu.com and is the host of the ScapeFu Podcast, a weekly podcast on the art and science of planted aquariums and aquascaping. He lives in Florida with his wife and kids. Read More...